STONER MOUNTAIN BLOG

18 April, 2017

Doctor Cyclops has announced the UK and European tour in support of their new album Local Dogs. The band has already performed two dates across Italy, but there are still plenty more gigs to come. Find a full list of tour dates below.

Doctor Cyclops is a power trio delivering a blistering heavy rock rejuvenating the legacy of the '70s and early '80s. The band formed in 2007 in a small village in the middle of Appennino mountains, Northern Italy. Their common passion for brilliant outfits such as Truth and Janey, Sir Lord Baltimore, Captain Beyond or Witchfinder General lead them to record and self-produce their first EP “The Doctor Cyclops” (2010), which is quickly followed by two full-lengths: “Borgofondo” (2012) and “Oscuropasso” (2014).

17 April, 2017

Saint Vitus once sang, White magic, black magic, which am I to choose? But Sweden's Alastor didn't have any doubts, they knew exactly what to choose for their debut EP.

Well, I just got done listening to about thirty-four minutes of music. That's, of course, nothing out of the ordinary, but this album/EP compresses that much music into just three songs. Luckily, Alastor makes the most of the time and delivers a quality EP. This is exactly the type of record where you pay no attention to song length, and just allow yourself to be entranced into Alastor's world. And I can guarantee you, you will not want to leave.

The guitar playing on here ranges from heavy-as-fuck doom metal to spacey, psychedelic sounding riffs and the vocals are sung in the background, like an old Black Sabbath record. These elements blend to create the incredible atmosphere of these tracks. The songs have an overall spooky, formidable tone and tomb-like mists that slip subliminally into the listener's ear.

The opener, Enemy, is well over eleven minutes and features a long, atmospheric Sleep-esque intro leading into the massive main riff. The song has good groove and powerful presence, supreme mini-solos, long solos and great clean vocals. The next song, Nothing To Fear, is straight to the point and full of energy. The end riff here is simply stunning. Impressive as the first two songs are, it's the third, Black Magic, where Alastor really shines. To be clear though, I can't turn Black Magic loud enough. This song will get stuck it your head for indeterminable amounts of time and there is nothing you can do about it. The title track opens with a bulky Weedeater-like riff, quickly opening into another Electric Wizard/Windhand-style riff. It's a truly freaked out song with mighty vocals and with some of the most epic, monolithic riffing you'll hear on the album.

Overall, Black Magic is nothing groundbreaking, but with it, Alastor has made an amazingly competent stoner doom album. It's fat and melodic in the right places. It will be stuck in your head for a while, I assure you that.

07 April, 2017

Canterbury-based progressive sludgers Ohhms have unveiled the new video to their track ‘The World’. Vocalist Paul Waller gives a bit of background about this new song:

Lyrically, ‘The World’ is a character study of a friend of mine who was so overcome by conspiracy theories that he couldn’t function in the world any longer. He began to lose his mind and was deemed by a shrink to be unfit to work because he was delusional. It started small, with a few YouTube videos about NASA and Chem-Trails but within six months he was telling me how the Earth was flat and that I was a part of the sheeple movement because I wasn’t willing to do research myself into his claims.

I don’t judge him, people that are heavily into organised religion seem just as bizarre to me, but what I found fascinating was the way in which all his friends and family turned their back on him, he would have been better off telling them he had become a full-time smack head. At least they would have had a point of reference to relate to him with. As it stands he is all alone in the world now and I don’t see him as much but when I do, it’s never boring, I'll tell you that.

The UK natives will be on tour with Hark and Bossk this spring. Check out the tour dates below:

06 April, 2017

Great news for fans of The Hazytones – mark your calendars for April and May. Well... at least if you live somewhere near Canada, because The Hazytones continue to promote their much-praised self-titled debut album and have recently announced their Canadian tour dates. You can check out the dates below.

The Hazytones are a stoner rock group founded in 2015 in Montreal. The trio stuns the audience with their stage presence and intensity. Riff after riff, the group is known for their fat sound and heavy, overdriven saturation.

The band features the powerful voice and guitar playing of Mick Martel (former founding member of Madcooks), the accuracy of drummer Antoine St-Germain (current member of God Bless America) and the rigor of the bassist Frederic Couture (former founding member of Reckless Ride).

05 April, 2017

Grajo is a band that needs to be talked about much more. The Córdoba-based doom metal act quietly released a pristine sounding full-length debut in 2016 to only sporadic acclaim, but it's deserving of much more widespread praise. Their recent two-track split EP with Orthodox is an occasion to remind you of this band. An occasion too good to be missed!

This split starts off with Grajo's Black Thunder Witch, by far the better song on the record. It's fresh and incredibly catchy. Grajo's music is heavy, poppy, psychedelic and sounds like a modern-day Saint Vitus. A very hard thing to explain is the excellent sounding vocals. Liz's vocals are truly unforgettable, bold but yet very soft, love listening to her beautiful voice! She also provided guest vocals on Orthodox's track. Grajo has proven themselves yet again to be extremely promising.

Sevilla's Orthodox contribute the second half of the split and while solid, have a hard time matching the awesomeness of the first song. The band did a cover of Neil Young's War of Man. And if riding first impressions, it'd be easy to say that the song sounds like it was recorded by the Melvins. So basically what we have here are some thick, powerful riffs instead of Neil Young's soft, acoustic tune.

But overall, this split is a very good release. It's definitely something everyone should pick up; both bands are worth your support and attention.

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